1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a cleaning method upon color-change in an electrostatic multi-color coating apparatus in which paints of a multiplicity of colors are selectively supplied under color-change to an electrostatic coating machine having an atomizing cup applied with a high voltage and rotationally driven at a high speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been desired in the electrostatic multi-color coating apparatus of this type to reduce the cleaning time required for color-change as short as possible.
In view of the above, cleaning air and cleaning thinner are alternately supplied at high pressure to a paint supply channel connected between an electrostatic coating machine and a color-change device, so that the inside of the color supply channel and the atomizing cup of the electrostatic coating machine can be cleaned rapidly.
In this method, however, since the cleaning air and the cleaning thinner are supplied at a great flow rate in a short time to the inside of the paint supply channel, paint and paint-containing thinner are instantaneously discharged in a great amount from the atomizing cup of the electrostatic coating machine, which overflow from a discharged liquid recovering shroud disposed around the periphery of the atomizing cup of the electrostatic coating machine and are scatter around to contaminate peripheral equipments or the coating machine main body.